Bearing gifts

All the Christmas in July challenges are helping to boost my little stash but I couldn't let the month go by without playing at Christmas Kickstart where it's Christmas all year round and I've been good about my aim to join each month so far! This month's theme is “grace us with your presents” — focus on gifts.

The Santa and gift images are from a set that was a freebie with a magazine, I think they’re rather sweet. I’ve kept the treatment sweet and simple too, stamping, simple masking and colouring with pencils. The addition of a few sequins is the only concession to anything not purely “old skool”!

Stamps:

Santa Stamp Here (freebie set with Making Cards & Papercraft Magazine)

Christmas Sayings (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)

Paper:

Bristol board

Ink:

Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Love Letter)

Other:

Coloured pencils

Pan Pastel (Phthalo Green Tint)

Clear iridescent sequins

Corner Chomper

If you’re looking to boost your stash of Christmas cards now we’re on the downhill stretch, why not come and play along?

Under the mistletoe

It’s July so of course there are plenty of Christmas challenges out in blogland! I’m joining in at Lost Coast Designs and the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers with this one.

Frankenstein’s monster is hoping for a smooch under the mistletoe, even if it doesn’t end in him finding his bride. He was too busy finding the shiniest berries to get round to the housework though so anyone puckering up will have to excuse the massive cobweb!

I love the fact the Festive Foliage stamp set included the Mwah! sentiment to go alongside the mistletoe image.

Stamps: 
Frankenstein (Carmen’s Veranda)
Festive Foliage (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board
Smooth black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Weathered Wood)

Other:
Stencil by Tim Holtz (Shattered)
Copic markers
Glossy Accents 

Christmas in July with SSS!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers invited me along as guest designer this month — thanks girls! 

We're celebrating Christmas in July and Edna is in a festive mood. My ostrich appreciates the sandy setting but he's a bit worried that there might be nothing for him in those piles of gifts, he certainly thinks he might be on Santa's naughty list!

The string of lights is from an old magazine freebie set and it didn't stamp all that cleanly so I gave it some assistance with a fineliner. I used a silver pen at the top of each bulb, coloured them with a Copic and gave each one a little halo of coloured light with some chalk before adding a “catchlight” dot to each with a white paint pen.

The ostrich has been at the green feather dye as he thought it would look quite festive with his borrowed Santa hat. His faint shadow is courtesy of a bit of chalk.

I've finally managed to get my hands on the Katzelkraft Christmas Sayings set. I could only find it stocked at a US store (Topflight Stamps) that doesn't ship to the UK. Hubby just visited his son in Canada though so I got them shipped there and he brought them home for me (plus a couple of other things to help make the shipping fee more justifiable!). Hooray!

Stamps:
Ostrich, Funny Accessories and Christmas Sayings (all Katzlekraft, no longer with us)
Magazine freebie Christmas set 

Paper: 
Bristol board
Scrap of smooth black

Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Copic markers
Bright white embossing powder (Wow!)
Chalk
White and Silver paint pens (Posca)
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by! If you're making festive cards (snarky if that takes your fancy but any Christmas cards are welcome) why not play along with the Sisterhood:

 

Link in the Chain - June

It's reveal day once more at Card Chain Challenge. My card has gone to Dagmara in Poland this time.

From the options on offer I chose the themes of coffee and friendship and the technique option of embossing.

I noticed Dagmara mentions on her blog that she keeps pet rats. Having recently acquired the Katzelkraft City Rats stamp set I decided they should be the ones enjoying a coffee together. I did change the facial expression for the rat on the left -- he's usually looking rather scared. I covered up part of his face when I inked the stamp then drew in a little smile instead. His companion looks as if he's enjoying the aroma of that coffee, I just hope they don't over indulge! 

It's my usual one layer aesthetic for CCC, the embossing adds a bit of texture and there's a tiny touch of sparkle on the spoon, courtesy of Wink of Stella. The images are coloured with a mixture of Copic base layer and pencil detail and white paint pen over some of the steam lines.

Stamps:
City Rats (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)
Coffee and Chocolate (Stamperia)
The Cafe (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)

Paper: Bristol board

Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black, Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Pop Culture border embossing folders (Cuttlebug)
Pan pastel (Phthalo green tint)
Wink of Stella (clear)
Posca paint pen (white)
Corner Chomper 

Thanks for stopping by! There are a few more days left to sign up for the July chain if you fancy making and sending one card and getting a card in return. All the details here if you’d like to join the fun

Rainbow peonies

I wanted to play along with the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers again this month where the theme is rainbows. I do have a stamp set that includes a rainbow builder but can I find it? No, I cannot. So I hope the challenge police are wilting in the heat affecting the UK at the moment and will forgive me for taking the colour route and failing to include even the slightest hint of snark, to boot.

I'm combining with a challenge at Splitcoast Stampers where Sabrina has asked us to use four ones: one layer, one stamped image (sentiment extra is OK), one die cut and one (or one type of) embellishment.

I probably wouldn't have done a purple/indigo vase here without the nudge of the rainbow colour challenge but it's given a slightly more eclectic look, I think — it does feel a bit like a flower picked from the garden and popped into the first thing that came to hand. So red, orange, yellow and green covered by the flowers, blue for the background and then the bottle to complete the spectrum.

Stamps:
Soothing Sympathy (Power Poppy)
Enjoy Quotes (Katzlekraft, no longer with us)

Paper: Bristol board 

Ink: Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Apothecary Bottles bigz die (Tim Holtz/Alterations)
Coloured pencils
Chalk
Clear/iridescent sequins
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by! 

Citrus birthday

Well outside my comfort zone with lots of die cuts today. I also did a bit of fussy cutting as I don't have dies for the bottle stamps -- it's such an easy outline to cut out I didn't feel they were necessary for me as I'm quite happy with a pair of scissors.

I'm combining challenges again, this is my second card for the Retro Rubber Taste of Summer challenge (feature fruit) and Die Cut Divas has an "anything goes" challenge this month. I don't usually do AG challenges but as this is die cut heavy and that's not my natural habitat I'm making an exception! 

I just don’t have the “clustering” sensibility that a crafter like my online buddy Natty has so it takes forever when I attempt it.

The bottle is stamped with just two inks even though there are three layers — the detail layer I stamped with DOX Evergreen Bough and then the next layer is Mint Julep stamped three times for darker coverage and the final layer is the same ink stamped just once. The elements are raised to various levels with card scraps so that things tuck neatly behind each other and they’re all arranged on a background I smooshed and splattered with Tumbled Glass ink. A few clear and iridescent sequins give it some finishing sparkle. 

Stamps:
Lemon Blossom and Bottled Up (both 2019, The Greetery)

Paper: Bristol board

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Evergreen Bough)
Hero Arts Shadow Ink mid tone (Mint Julep)
Jenni Bowlin ink by Ranger (Lemon Drops)
Adirondack by Ranger (Sunshine Yellow) 
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Picked Raspberry, Spun Sugar, Tumbled Glass)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Bahama Blue)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Lemon Blossom Dies (The Greetery)
Sequins

Thanks for stopping by, links to details of the challenges I played are here:

Scrappy snowflakes

The challenge on Sundays at Splitcoast Stampers is always a “featured stamper” one — the idea is to have a look at the chosen stamper’s gallery and pick a card for inspiration to make your own. I don’t often get to play along but things worked out this weekend and I decided to combine and make a second card for the “snow day” theme at Christmas Kickstart.

Maja was the chosen stamper this week. Her “scrappy” style couldn’t be much more different to my usual but I couldn’t resist having a go, perhaps because it was well outside my comfort zone and that’s what makes a challenge a challenge, right?

I made the background paper with ink and some faint snowflakes (stamped with acrylic paint). The edges are sponged with a darker grey with the hanging stars at the top stamped in the same ink. The ground is swiped direct to paper with a Distress pad. 

The embellishments are very much based on the inspiration card I chose from Maja’s gallery although mine are made from layers of kraft cardstock (hers are wooden shapes).The punched circle was covered with double sided tape and very fine glitter burnished on there. The wee bear is stamped, he had a touch of pencil colouring before being fussy cut and finally there’s a sprinkle of Enamel Accents dots.

Stamps:
Polar Bear Pals (MFT)
Magazine cover mount from Craft Stamper (Nov 2012!)
Grunge Flakes (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous)

Paper:
Bristol board
Kraft

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Iced Spruce, Walnut Stain)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Hero Arts Shadow ink (Charcoal, Soft Granite)

Other:
Coloured pencils
White acrylic paint
Gauze
White crochet thread
Star punch (Fiskars)
Circle punch (Fiskars)
Snowflake die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Glamour Dust by Deco Art (Crystal)
White Enamel Accents by Ranger

Thanks for stopping by! There’s still a week or more to play at Christmas Kickstart if you’re trying to build up a bit of a buffer ahead of time!

Cooling snow

It’s getting a bit warm again here in the UK so the current Christmas Kickstart challenge theme seems perfect if you need to visualise cooler things — Jo and this month’s elf, Caroline, are taking a snow day.

I’ve gone in for a close up with my card and featured three detailed individual flakes on an inky background. It proved extremely difficult to photograph this today so I've done a "flat lay" photo as well since the flakes show better that way (but look very dull). The flakes are a lovely silver but apparently too reflective for today's lighting conditions and my camera! If you combine the two images in your head you’ll probably arrive at something close to the reality of it.

The inks were just applied by smooshing them on there with a piece of acetate and the flakes are embossed with silver powder once the background was dry. 

A stamped sentiment to finish and you’re done — a nice quick card with a short supplies list! Ink smooshing means no two cards will ever be exactly the same so this would be quite a nice design to make multiples; you could leave the flakes stamps set up in your stamping platform but the background would mean each card was unique. Just don't try photographing them on a sunny day!

Stamps:

Grunge Flakes (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous)
Noel (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper: cold press watercolour

Ink: 
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean)
Versamark by Tsukineko 

Other:
Detail embossing powder (silver)
Corner Chomper  

Thanks for stopping by!

Rustic Pear

I made a card this morning (well, I say this morning - it took so long I actually finished it after lunch) using lots of die cuts. I may share that soon if I can convince myself I like it! As an antidote, I felt the need to return to my "stampy stamper" roots so I combined a couple of challenges for a rustic "just because" card.

Lost Coast Designs is asking for Fruit, Flowers and Foliage this month and Retro Rubber's Taste of Summer challenge has a fruit theme so those two played nicely together. As my ripe pear still has leaves attached I guess I can count both fruit and foliage for LCD!

I stamped the pear (one of my very early stamp purchases, grey unmounted rubber from an unknown maker), masked it and then stamped the Perspective Floor as a sort of tablecloth grounding. Everything is coloured with pencils and it's finished with a simple sentiment and my usual rounded corner.

Stamps:
Pear (unknown maker, I've had it since 2007)
Perspective Floor (Lost Coast Designs, had mine since 2023)
Sentiment from Petite Posies (Technique Tuesday, no longer with us, 2011)

Paper: kraft

Ink: 
Versafine by Tsukineko (Vintage Sepia)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Corner Chomper  

Thanks for stopping by!

Link in the chain — May

It's reveal day again at Card Chain Challenge where this time 25 players signed up from around the world to send and receive happy mail. CCC is rapidly approaching a total of 5,000 cards made and sent — that’s a lot of creativity and card-making friendship over the years. Big thanks to Gail and Jo for keeping our lovely crafting community going.

My card has gone to Imke in Germany. I’ve gone very CAS although not quite one layer this time — the little post boy/cherub is fussy cut and raised just a tiny bit with some card scraps. 

I used low tack tape to mask off the edges of the card, stamped a fine script all over and blended a little of the same ink to define the panel a bit. Stamped the various post marks etc in grey and black, used the post cancellation lines as a little “whoosh” behind the delivery boy, added a greeting and called it done.

I only managed one of the options this time (postal) but as Gail always says, it only takes one to play!

Stamps: French Mail and Artsy Banners (both Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)

Paper: Bristol board

Ink: 
Brilliance by Tuskineko (Graphite Black)
Shadow ink by Hero Arts (Soft Granite and Charcoal)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antqiue Linen)

Other: Copic markers

Thanks for stopping by! There’s still time to sign up for the next chain if you’d like to join the fun.